“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” (Rom 8:19)

A son of the most High is a safe son. He has through the fall tasted the wretchedness of being a child of the spirit of error. He knows firsthand the emptiness and nothingness of a life where everything is defined by good or evil. A true son has experienced the futility of erecting his own righteousness. His attempts of observing the law failed miserably. He knows firsthand how appearances are just illusions of a world in which he is now just a sojourner. God’s sons are well acquainted with sorrow and tribulations. They have been under the curse and have vivid memories of its misery. After they have tasted God’s grace and received an unwavering faith in God’s goodness and love the enticement of returning again to a state of slavery holds no appeal to them whatsoever.

A true son has encountered the negatives and the positives of this world. He has allowed the positives to swallow up the negatives. In the same manner as when God said; “Let there be light” and the light swallowed up darkness, the son has let the light of Christ shine in his life by accepting Him through faith. He has become a see-througher who recognizes that God is all in all, and that God’s self-for-others-love sole and only objective is to gather everything in Christ through mercy and love. A safe son knows that it has all been necessary. Without it he could never have reached the pinnacle of the creation; personhood. A consciousness of being a person with choices. The son sees clearly that when he received Christ a change of reigning spirits occurred. The sin deity is replaced by God, and it is now God’s life which is being manifested through him.

A true son has given up his life, and thus found life. A quality of life hitherto unknown to him, but he embraces it with everything he is, because he has acquired a profound understanding through everything he has experienced; this is true life – this is what he originally was meant to be. As every man reaches true sonship a breath of relief goes through the creation as it waits for its final liberation from its bondage to decay and will be brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. As everything will be gathered in Christ, everything will be gathered in His sisters and brothers as well to the glory of God. God’s generosity and love is boundless. He freely shares Christ’s inheritance with His offspring – the seed of Abraham.

We Live in Romans 8

To put it briefly, Romans 7 is not the chapter in which the believer lives. We live indwelt By Christ in Romans 8. Romans 7 is when we forget that Christ lives in us, and we try to live – to fulfill the law – by our own strength. But independent self is sin, therefore the moment we forget the indwelling Christ, and try to live by independent self, sin is at work in us, and we are under its dominion. Therefore the point to remember is that as that chapter tells us, we are dead to the law; that means we are not independent people trying to fulfill God’s law. We are new people, with the Law-Giver living in us, Christ Himself. We only enter the bondage of Romans 7, when we forget that fact and we must learn to turn quickly by the cleansing blood to our abiding place in Romans 8.
(Norman Grubb)

Norman Grubb

Unforced rhythms of grace

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
(Matt 11:28-30, The Message)